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Fordachai
'''Fordachai '''is the largest country in Eia, dubbed 'The Blade of Eia', and means 'The Land of Fjords' in Yrdain. Historically the home of former world-capital city, Ehvylus, Fordachai is now populated by smaller settlements and cities immeasurably far away from each other. ''The Great Oasis ''boasts hundreds of miles of land where the war in The Second Emergence happened, remaining a lost echo of Ehvylus where millions perished. Where White Lake lies now used to be the ancient city, feeding the vast woodlands, rivers and smaller lakes that stretch over the horizon. The landscape of Fordachai, as in its Yrdain name, is home to far-reaching mountain ranges and endless river systems that fray into shallow fjords, rendering much of the ground swampy. In the North-East lies Venkerhimoat, an enormous plain of ever-plummeting temperatures. Fordain Culture Fordain culture comes across as more brutalist when compared to its sister country of Yrdachai, focusing more on discipline and efficiency over comfort and leisure. Most notoriously is how its people handle mortality, more specifically the societal weight of a person dying. Funerals and proper burial are absolutely paramount, to the extent of imprisoning stone masons for leaving imperfections on tombstones or sacking gardeners who don't keep floral tributes in pristine condition. When a Fordain person dies of natural causes, their organs are harvested and kept for potential donation to those in need; this is a law and opting out is not an option at any point. However, if someone is killed while in service of protecting their country, they have earned the right to keep their organs and carry them on to The Follow, where they will be seen as more 'whole' and held higher up in the afterlife's social hierarchy. While the Fordain are incredibly precious of their dead, they are also stubbornly un-empathetic towards bereaved parents. Having children as a Fordain citizen is celebrated traditionally with a ceremony involving the entire family and a chosen priest, wherein the parents-to-be must take an oath to protect their offspring with their lives for the remainder of their living years, and must swear that the continuation of their bloodline isn't out of selfishness or 'accident'. If a child dies at any point before their respective parents, the parents are shamed and cast out of high society and generally lose respect for failing to keep their children safe. This was introduced after the population boom that occurred in the millennia following The Second Emergence in order to control the population. A child's birth is marked by the planting of a tree on the family's land, usually by the mother. On each birthday, a mark is cut into the wood at 1cm intervals from the ground, signifying their age, and upon their death that tree is felled from the last mark they lived to. The remaining stump becomes their tombstone, with any tribute engraved in the bark. The felled part of the tree is used to build their funeral pyre or a fire of mourning, the latter being a separate send-off for those who are buried instead of cremated.